Drama...No Match For Facebook
Two years ago, claims made by the New York Times and UK media stated that Cambridge Analytica tried to influence how Americans voted using information from 50 million Facebook without their permission. An undercover TV reporter suggested Cambridge Analytica was prepared to use bribes to create videos for clients it could then post to the internet to influence voters.
Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg eventually testified in Washington to discuss foreign meddling in 2016 presidential elections, the spread of disinformation, privacy and censorship. Sheryl Sandberg told the Senate Intelligence Committee her company was "now blocking millions of attempts to register false accounts each and every day" and was "making progress on fake news.
The event forced Facebook to attempt to handle user information, and the content allowed on the network. Some of the initiative Facebook did were the following:
– Removes 32 pages & accounts for inauthentic behavior
– Bans MyPersonality app, which misused data of up to 4 million people.
– Announces “view as” security breach has affected up to 50 million people.
– Removes 559 pages and 251 accounts tied to inauthentic behavior.
– Takes down inauthentic behavior from Iran
– Releases “An independent Assessment of the Human Rights Impact of Facebook in Myanmar
Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the difficulty of policing content of their 2.5 billion + users and hired more employees to use AI to aid the monitoring of content….to the tune of more than $1 billion, which drove Facebook’s expenses from 50 to 60%.
But the bad press continued. Last year according to The New York Times, Facebook shared more user data with third-party companies than it has previous admitted. Specifically, Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages. Facebook let Amazon obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends and it let Yahoo view streams of friends’ posts.
The bad press was ammunition for some Facebook employees to speak out about some of Facebook’s tactics to assess employee performance. More than a dozen former Facebook employees detailed how the company’s leadership and its performance review system created a culture where any dissent is discouraged. Employees said Facebook’s stack ranking performance review system drove employees to push out products and features that drive user engagement without fully considering potential long-term negative impacts on user experience or privacy.
And the drama continued. Also in 2019, 540 million of the records, including account names, comments and likes, were publicly available on Amazon’s cloud servers after they were uploaded by two third-party apps.
And the drama continued. Also in 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) assigned jurisdiction to see whether Facebook's dominance harms competition and if it was engaged in unlawful monopolistic practices.
But as I write this price, Facebook just hit all-time highs.
The COVID-19 pandemic is sending users to Facebook Inc.’s social-networking, messaging and live-streaming platforms in record numbers, but that does not automatically mean more money for Facebook.
Facebook FB, +6.03% finds itself in a delicate position with the onslaught of the deadly outbreak: As the coronavirus forces more people indoors and wreaks havoc on the economy, it is driving record use on the social network. For instance, daily audio and video calls on WhatsApp and Messenger doubled as the virus spread, reaching levels normally seen only on New Year’s Eve, Facebook Chief Mark Executive Zuckerberg said in a March 18 conference call with reporters.
So what is Facebook doing now, they are seizing the day? Yesterday, Facebook announced Facebook Shops.
Facebook Shops which lets businesses operate online stores on Facebook and Instagram and in due time, Messenger and WhatsApp. Why now, Zuckerberg said because of COVID-19, small businesses have been force to move online, so Facebook Shops was created to assist small businesses with their endeavors online. According to Deutsche Bank analyst Lloyd Walmsley, the opportunity for Facebook Shop could amount to $30 billion in revenue.
I must admit, I thought the all the scandals the past couple of years were the start of the demise of Facebook, but I'm learnt drama...is no match for Facebook.
This post is my personal opinion. I’m not a financial advisor, this isn't financial advise. Do your own research before making investment decisions.
Posted Using LeoFinance
It shows how easily these platform based systems can weather storms. They are more agile than their physical counterparts and have people so addicted that they will not stop regardless of what the companies do.
It is really sad to see but this is the world we are in. There are hundreds of millions of users who would keep using Facebook no matter what the company did. They simply could not stop.
Posted Using LeoFinance
If the Masses only knew about Hive, 3Speak, Leofinance, the world would be a better place and the playing field would be a bit more leveled.
Posted Using LeoFinance
Without a doubt. We are watching the onset of the greatest wealth generation in this history of humanity. It will take a while for things to get going but the amount of wealth generated will make the internet look small.
I just think about all those in game assets that now can be monetized. With more than 2 billion people playing games, that is a lot of money and that is just one area.
Posted Using LeoFinance